Capital Grants
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PROGRESS REPORT FALL 2013 Nature in Neighborhoods Capital Grants Funding is available to help bring nature into neighborhoods. Is your project next? Are you ready to make the next great neighborhood natural area? cross the Portland metropolitan area, communities are finding A innovative ways to help nature thrive. Salmon habitat was restored along Johnson Creek. An eco-friendly light rail station is taking shape in Oak Grove, and a degraded alley was reinvented as a green parkway in Cornelius. Trees are springing up in the unlikeliest of places, such as Interstate 205. These projects have one important thing in common: support from Metro’s Nature in Neighbohoods capital grants. Metro has awarded $7.5 million to 27 projects using funds from the voter- approved 2006 natural areas bond measure. Successful projects get the community involved, foster diverse partnerships and innovate. They lead to bigger benefits, from jobs and economic development to livable neighborhoods and clean air. 2 Metro’s Capital Grants PROJECTS AND CASE STUDIES 4 Land acquisition 6 Urban transformation 8 Habitat restoration 10 Neighborhood livability Working with community partners, Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods capital grants have already transformed acres of land across the region. While the grants fund only capital WHO QUALIFIES | Neighborhood NEXT STEPS | Contact Mary Rose investments, a wide variety of projects and community groups, nonprofit Navarro at 503-797-1781 or maryrose. can fit the bill. organizations, schools, cities, counties [email protected] to discuss and public park providers are invited your idea, get advice on project • Would privately owned property in to apply. planning, connect with potential your community make the next great partners and hear lessons learned from neighborhood natural area? WHAT QUALIFIES | Projects must successful projects. purchase land or make improvements • Can a redevelopment project in to public property that result in a Learn more or download forms: your community go the extra step to capital asset with a life of at least www.oregonmetro.gov/capitalgrants integrate nature and habitat if more 20 years and a total value of at least funding is available? $50,000. • Is there a degraded stream, wetland MATCH CRITERIA | Applicants must or other habitat that needs to be match grants with outside funding or restored? in-kind services equivalent to twice the • Can schools, parks or other public grant award. land in your neighborhood become a place for people to interact with APPLICATION PROCESS | Letters of nature? inquiry are accepted anytime. Metro staff will evaluate letters, invite full applications from promising projects and conduct site visits. A grant review committee evaluates full applications at least once yearly and makes recommendations; the Metro Council awards grants. Progress Report 3 Land acquisition By protecting special habitats, Nature in Neighborhoods capital grants give communities a place to connect with nature rom white oak savannas to urban Nadaka Nature Park, $220,000 and destination and a potential wayside creeks, land acquisition projects $239,000 awards It’s easier to find along the future Westside Trail. With a F are preserving some of the Gresham’s Nadaka Nature Park these new addition, it will more than double region’s most special places. days, thanks to a two-acre expansion in size and grow exponentially in supported by a $220,000 Nature in wildlife habitat. Communities have come together to Neighborhoods grant. The park, which protect local assets that aren’t covered was tucked away in the East Wilkes White Oak Savanna, $334,000 and by Metro’s regional efforts to buy Neighborhood, can now be reached $500,000 awards Protecting the 20- natural areas. Preserving these small from Northeast Glisan Street. Led acre White Oak Savanna in West Linn neighborhood jewels unites groups by the Columbia Slough Watershed preserves a rare habitat – and, for as diverse as local governments, Council, neighborhood and community commuters who zoom by on Interstate neighborhood associations, churches, groups secured a second, $239,000 205, a spectacular view. businesses and nonprofit organizations. grant to transform the natural area’s A soft-surface trail will allow visitors Sometimes, land trusts help get the gateway with gathering spaces, nature- to experience this unique habitat, job done. based play and a community garden. showcasing remarkable vistas over the Willamette River to Canemah Bluff. As a tried-and-true conservation tool, Lilly K. Johnson Park expansion, land acquisition provides a straight- $345,000 Nestled south of Farmington forward way to make a difference. But Road in Beaverton, Lilly K. Johnson purchasing land isn’t an ending point. Park serves as a neighborhood It’s often the first step in a community’s mission to open a nature park, build trails or restore habitat. Summer Creek, $1 million At 43 acres, Summer Creek is Tigard’s second largest park. Nestled along Summer and Fanno creeks, the mature forest, wetlands and open spaces are blossoming as a hub for environmental education. Nature lovers might spot turtles, frogs, salamanders, red-tailed hawks, owls and herons. White Oak Savanna Photo by Roberta Schwartz 4 Baltimore Woods CASE STUDY Grant connects neighbors with nature Urban properties often in St. Johns’ Baltimore Woods corridor don’t meet the criteria for Baltimore Woods was in limbo. While the grants that protect wildlife recession kept developers at bay, the area habitat and endangered gave rise to weeds, litter and neglect. species. Metro’s Nature in But neighbors around the 30-acre corridor in North Portland’s St. Johns Neighborhoods capital grants neighborhood saw a community asset. are a rare exception. And with the support of two Metro Nature in Neighborhoods capital grants, the woods were given a new lease on life. Baltimore Woods Baltimore Woods corridor, $539,000 Much of Baltimore Woods borders Barbara Quinn, chair of Friends of Baltimore ($158,00 in 2010, homes, garages and lawns north of Woods, said the group hoped to purchase $381,000 in 2012) Cathedral Park, stretching toward Pier several lots, which peaked in value a few Park. The trees, some crawling with ivy years earlier and were now less appealing Recipients: City of Portland and blackberry, act as a buffer between to developers. But purchasing the land Bureau of Environmental Services, the elevated residential area and industrial could be difficult, Bowers explained. Urban Columbia Land Trust, Friends of sites below, on the eastern banks of the properties often don’t meet the criteria Baltimore Woods Willamette River. for grants that protect wildlife habitat and endangered species. Partners: Portland Parks & Friends of Baltimore Woods had been Recreation, Friends of Baltimore advocating for restoration for several Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods capital Woods, Audubon Society of years, but with development looming, grants are a rare exception. The Baltimore Portland, SOLV, Port of Portland, it was time to act. They contacted Three Woods project was chosen in 2010, with Catherdral Park Place LL Rivers Conservancy – which has since commitments from the Portland Bureau become part of the Columbia Land Trust of Environmental Services’ Grey to Green – and met with Virginia Bowers, who program, the restoration volunteer group specializes in helping acquire land for SOLV and the funding match of the City of preservation. There must be an option Portland’s Parks & Recreation department. A second Nature in Neighborhoods for rescuing the woods, the group Metro provided $158,000 toward the grant, awarded in 2012, will help buy thought. After hearing their vision, $475,000 price tag. four more parcels for preservation. Bowers said, “it seemed appropriate for Bowers thanks Metro for turning a Three Rivers to have a spot at the table.” With financial backing, Bowers helped grassroots efforts into real progress for the group scoop up five vacant tax lots – the St. Johns community. Meanwhile, a study funded by the including the site of proposed condos that Port of Portland looked at ways to were home to a large oak grove. “Without the grant from Metro, it route two proposed regional trails wouldn’t have happened,” she said. through Baltimore Woods rather than “The recession has had a silver lining “No way.” on a nearby street. The report noted because people were willing to sell,” support for preserving the woods as a Quinn said. “Some saw that we were trail asset and buffer, improving storm very interested in this project, and they water filtration, saving 30 Oregon white wanted to do something good for the oaks and potentially creating an area for neighborhood as well.” environmental education. SOLV organized volunteers to remove invasive species and plant new natives. A number of groups, representing both schools and businesses, have taken part. Progress Report 5 Urban transformation Who says nature can’t be at home along a freeway, at a light-rail station or outside a medical campus? ften, urban transformations feel far removed from the O natural world. Busy roads and big buildings evoke images of gray, not green. But, as Nature in Neighborhood grant recipients are showing, a little creativity and determination can go a long way toward weaving nature into the most urban development and infrastructure projects. Just ask cyclists and runners enjoying thousands of plantings along Interstate 205, or commuters who will experience the region’s first green park- and-ride. Urban transformations bring people together in unique ways, including organizations that don’t typically Interstate 205 tree planting with former Portland Trail Blazers center Marcus Camby (red shirt) collaborate. Although these projects Photo by Tom Atiyeh, Friends of Trees tend to have the biggest price tags, they also have some of the biggest benefits Hall Creek water quality Park Avenue transit station, for their communities. enhancement, $354,000 When you $350,000When TriMet’s newest MAX think of nature, central Beaverton line pulls into Park Avenue Station Greening Interstate 205, $410,000 probably doesn’t pop to mind – but in Oak Grove, riders will experience Unlikely partners – Friends of Trees that’s about to change.